Why the fear?

As we saw with the solicits earlier, issue 3 of X-23 is going to be different. Quite possibly thought provoking, or quite possibly cliche.

X-23 #3
Written by MARJORIE LIU
Penciled by WILL CONRAD
Cover by DANNI SHINYA LUO
Cast adrift, and hunted by those she once considered friends, X-23 is forced to confront the Devil himself to save her soul. If she even has a soul...
32 PGS./Parental Advisory …$2.99


It has me worried.
Laura Kinney is a character unlike many others. She's rich with possibilities. My fear lies within the age-old debate of whether or not clones have souls. To me this argument is moot with her. As she's more a test tube daughter than a clone, but that doesn't mean the current writer of her comic feels this way.

Marjorie Liu is a wonderfully talented woman, let me start off by saying this. I have greatly enjoyed her works, all except for her one-shot of X-23. It was a water testing comic though, so to speak.

With Laura Kinney's abuse in her past, and the psychological trauma she endured of being treated sub-human because they told her she's a clone and beat her, this small blurb for this issue reads as mysterious as it should. Only one woman knows the truth, and right now she's dead.

The part of it I find interesting, as a casual reader it's quite obvious. You work for a high-finance lab, that commits espionage and deals in murder. Do you really think they wouldn't notice that the egg cell stock is dropping twice as fast as what the record books show for the male trials that have taken place? Of course they'd notice. That's just how labs work. Careful inventory, redundancy checks, and more. On the books it's just not feasible for Dr. Sarah Kinney to have used their materials to create the embryo that became X-23. This and the physiology remark from Zander Rice in the mini-series all suggest Dr. Kinney had gotten the materials elsewhere for the embryo. A healthy young woman, who puts science ahead of morals, so it's kind of obvious where those materials came from. The green eyes, facial similarities, and hair of X-23 also speak to this.

X-23 going to hell, and the ramifications of if she has a soul from all the trauma she endured telling her she was sub-human, that she was a soulless beast, plays a huge factor in hindering this character's development into being a woman who thinks she's worth living. This issue could finally shed some light on subjects that could be a pivotal point for Laura Kinney.

Namely, her true origins. Marvel could finally cover this long overlooked facet of the character, to help push her onto the road of recovery. To prove to her she is the same as anyone else. She has a soul, and one woman who might be in hell could finally answer all this for her. One woman who has many acts she committed in the pursuit of science she regrets to the point that even an act of redemption in the end, may not have let her reach heaven's door, and even if it did, would her conscience let her do anything but condemn herself to hell?

Yes, that's right I speak of Dr. Sarah Kinney, X-23's mother. This issue could finally let the mother herself explain to Laura everything. A tearful reunion in a sea of chaos that is Wolverine in hell. If handled right, this could be a pivotal moment for Laura, a ground breaking comic covering the facets of science and creation, a comic that goes into detail of her importance to Dr. Kinney outside of science, a comic that touts all living things have souls, no matter how they came to be. A comic that finally decrees that Laura Kinney is not simply a female clone of Wolverine to all those that ignored the subtle details of her origin minis.

My fear? As great writing chops as Marjorie Liu has, would she dare do this? Would she take this road in a fledgling comic that's only on its third issue? Or will she balk at this oppurtunity to simply placate the masses and what they think they know is true about Laura Kinney, and help re-enforce even more horrendous cliches about clones not having souls, about Laura just simply being wolverine's clone who happens to be female? This is what worries me. Will Marjorie Liu step up to the challenge and truly give a thought provoking and pioneering story such as Innocence Lost, and Target X gave us, or will she fizzle out and fall back to old habits as her X-23 oneshot depicted.

Only time will tell.
It both worries me, and has me cautiously optimistic. This issue could be the pivotal X-23 issue in anyone's collection, or it could be just another rehash of regurgitated crap you'd see in any anti-science right wing nut's home.
This issue could truly define Liu's career for ages to come, or it could be the second omen of her decline into comic author obscurity. I hope she proves up to the challenge, but I remain cautiously optimistic about it. In this modern age of writers attempting to one up another, and literally crap on other's work, it worries me that she may attempt to make X-23 as she sees fit in a manner that is dentrimental to what the character is. Or at worse, it may just be filler for the masses that really tells us nothing or hides behind Beezle-Bub's mind games. So will Liu step up to the challenge? Or will this be another story that'll be retconned in some manner far later like Laura's early Uncanny X-Men appearances were.

X-23 Solicits for Oct-Dec 2010.

Here are the next 3 issues for X-23. I'll reserve judgement for the reviews, since these little blurbs aren't much to go on, but suffice it to say, the dread I felt after reading the one-shot by Liu is starting to come back. The claw misplacement on the regular cover of issue 2 and issue 3, aren't doing much to reassure me about these fears that we could see more eye color, and other goofs or mistakes happen with the character again either. Whether written or in the art itself. The hair color on the cover for issue 4 also seems like artists and 'potentially' writers are getting the 616 X-23 mixed up with the X-Men Evolution one. Well at least the vampire variant is accurate and rocks. Such a shame too, I adore the stylistic approach of the normal issue 2, if not for the claw misplacement on her knuckles. Issue 3's cover would also be awesome, if not for the claw misplacement. The issue 4 DJURDJEVIC variant will be added once Marvel updates with it.


October 20th

X-23 #2
Written by MARJORIE LIU
Penciled by WILL CONRAD
Cover by DANNI SHINYA LUO
Vampire Variant by MIKE MAYHEW
X-23 has never been a normal teenager, but with a demonic Wolverine on the loose, her dreams of becoming that normal teen seem less possible than ever. When the images this imposter Wolverine has been filling her head with become real, who can she turn to? And where is the real Wolverine in all of this? Find out as the series you’ve been waiting for continues!
32 PGS./Parental Advisory $2.99


November 17th

X-23 #3
Written by MARJORIE LIU
Penciled by WILL CONRAD
Cover by DANNI SHINYA LUO
Cast adrift, and hunted by those she once considered friends, X-23 is forced to confront the Devil himself to save her soul. If she even has a soul...
32 PGS./Parental Advisory $2.99


December 15th

X-23 #4
Written by MARJORIE LIU
Penciled by WILL CONRAD
Cover by LEINIL FRANCIS YU
Variant Cover by MARKO DJURDJEVIC
The open road can be a dangerous place for a teenage girl...unless you're X-23. Leaving the X-Men is no heartbreak, not when the answers X-23 seeks about herself are out in the world. But her questions will lead her down a path more dangerous than any she's ever encountered, one that ties directly into the past of another orphan: Remy Le Beau, aka GAMBIT.
32 PGS./Parental Advisory $2.99

X-23 in Marvel vs Capcom 3

Looks like Wolverine's test tube daughter has made it into Marvel vs. Capcom 3.

Thank the Tokyo Game Show for this news.



Now excuse me while I go gleefully spazz out.

Wolverine - The Road to Hell

Released yesterday at comic shops everywhere was Wolverine: The Road to Hell.

It's an issue to kick off the all-new Wolverine saga going on right alongside the relaunch of Wolverine and Family titles. Titles such as Daken, X-23, Wolverine, and Uncanny X-Force.

Yup, this is an X-23 blog, you're not mistaken, but this title in question also features a short story featuring X-23 called 'Brace for Impact' written by Dan Way and Marjorie Liu. A rather interesting story. It confirms a couple details like the outcome of Dr. Zander Rice, and a few other snippets. While putting the 'short' in short story, it does manage to keep Laura in character, and help setup what to expect from her upcoming on-going. So far all signs are pointing to great. In this story, albeit quickly, X-23 uses her training, and shines as the one we've all grown to know and love. It's a quite accurate, albeit quick, depiction that really starts to wet the appetite for what's to come.

Personally? I can't wait for the upcoming on-going if this is any indication of what to expect from Marjorie Liu. It treads softly and quickly, but hits the key notes of X-23. She comes across as free to live for herself, not knowing what that means, so engages on her own mission to keep how she was raised from happening to others. Leaving at a cliffhanger to keep the reader hanging on till the new Wolverine Family ongoings start. This really quells my fears of Marjorie Liu taking over the character after her other attempt in the one-shot that seemed too random to truly figure out what the intent was with hiding behind a mcguffin to cover any characterization issues that ran abundant in Laura's usage. Seems the wait between titles has really helped Liu get in touch with the character and how she's portrayed. No Mowgli traits here, just pure unfiltered X-23 in her Pinnochio nature trying to stop her childhood from happening to others. The art itself is complimentary of the story, yielding more panels of great angle usage, and character conveyance, plus it helps that it's purdy to look at too. The art is by Giuseppe Camuncoli, Onofrio Catacchio, and Will Conrad, with colors by Marte Gracia and John Rauch.

I might have to start watching for the Daken title too, as it seems all 3 of these titles may criss-cross in an event to kick them off. Well, the relaunched Wolverine's issue one doesn't feature her, so you may be able to skip that title spottily for now.

And remember, 13 more days to go before X-23 #1 hits shelves.

14 Days to Go!

Just two weeks to go till the X-23 on-going is released. Last week, Marvel in anticipation of these new wolverine spin-offs, released a catch-up info book themselves called "The All-New Wolverine Saga." It covers accurately much info about all the characters, and helps place the X-23 oneshot in the X-23 timeline as happening after X-force but right before curse of the mutants.

I'll be continuing the rest of the reviews soon before issue 1 of x-23 is released, but for now, life is usurping more of my time away from other pursuits.